"Stay with me: I need to make a sequel to one of the most influential and defining movie of multiple generations, but without the solid acting, excellent music, staple plot and pot or connection to the first one," must've been the pitch. And, incredibly, the studio head bought that.
Obviously, when someone wants to make a sequel to a decades-old and virtually untouchable film, most people would see disaster written all over it. And Easy Rider: The Ride Back is complete proof of that.
Granted, I had never seen the original until I heard about this one from the hilarious How Did This Get Made? podcast, and despite them telling me I didn't need to see the first one, I went ahead and made this a double feature especially since the first one's considered an all-time classic. They couldn't have been more right. This "follow-up" had about a one percent association with the first one and that was just because both contained motorcycles.
This movie, if you can call it that, was so incoherent, messy and amateurish calling it The Room on Wheels would be very kind. The sound was always off, the cardboard characters were instantly forgettable and unforgivable and the music was both a complete distraction and absolutely atrocious – and I'm not just comparing it to the first one, but even if one did, they'd shoot the director.
Basically, and mind you, I just finished watching this, I am guessing the movie is about a Vietnam deserter's long – make that overbearingly long – motorcycle ride home to see his disapproving father. Along the sad (for us, that is) journey, there are about 83 flashbacks to what seems to be another movie and the plot gets so convoluted, heavy, random, clichéd and includes about 12 or so main characters that I stopped trying to figure out who was who and never cared a split second about any of them. And this includes a woman who got raped. Her story arc (of many others) was far beyond the caring stage once introduced, so there wasn't even an emotional tie to her.
And this was all from a movie that's supposed to be a sequel to Easy Rider. This was as much a sequel as Halloween III: Season of the Witch was to the first two Halloween movies.
Mercifully, after watching 80+ mostly god-awful films to catch up on the How Did This Get Made? podcast, this was the last I'd see for a couple of weeks when the next podcast is published. Ranking them, this has to be in the top ten of those as the worst of the worst. It was unbearable at times to sit through this and no one whatsoever should see it. Ever.
At least with another road-trip movie, Thelma & Louise, they had the common courtesy to drive off the Grand Canyon when they knew they had nothing left to live for. We were NOT so lucky with the main characters here.
* * *
Final thoughts: Though I don't ride motorcycles, I can sense that keeping your mouth open for a cross-country trek isn't the smartest thing one can do on a bike. Enter Phil Pitzer, co-writer and star of this turkey and watch this man with his mouth agape the entire movie. Considering 60% of it is shot like an ad for Harleys on long, desert highways, it's entirely distracting and thoroughly disgusting watching his mouth open on the open road. Bad, bad choice for anyone who didn't stop him from doing that.
That said, one nice thing about his poor decision was that it did give me some hearty laughs and at least I got an ounce of entertainment, albeit unintentional, out of the film.
Obviously, when someone wants to make a sequel to a decades-old and virtually untouchable film, most people would see disaster written all over it. And Easy Rider: The Ride Back is complete proof of that.
Granted, I had never seen the original until I heard about this one from the hilarious How Did This Get Made? podcast, and despite them telling me I didn't need to see the first one, I went ahead and made this a double feature especially since the first one's considered an all-time classic. They couldn't have been more right. This "follow-up" had about a one percent association with the first one and that was just because both contained motorcycles.
This movie, if you can call it that, was so incoherent, messy and amateurish calling it The Room on Wheels would be very kind. The sound was always off, the cardboard characters were instantly forgettable and unforgivable and the music was both a complete distraction and absolutely atrocious – and I'm not just comparing it to the first one, but even if one did, they'd shoot the director.
Basically, and mind you, I just finished watching this, I am guessing the movie is about a Vietnam deserter's long – make that overbearingly long – motorcycle ride home to see his disapproving father. Along the sad (for us, that is) journey, there are about 83 flashbacks to what seems to be another movie and the plot gets so convoluted, heavy, random, clichéd and includes about 12 or so main characters that I stopped trying to figure out who was who and never cared a split second about any of them. And this includes a woman who got raped. Her story arc (of many others) was far beyond the caring stage once introduced, so there wasn't even an emotional tie to her.
And this was all from a movie that's supposed to be a sequel to Easy Rider. This was as much a sequel as Halloween III: Season of the Witch was to the first two Halloween movies.
Mercifully, after watching 80+ mostly god-awful films to catch up on the How Did This Get Made? podcast, this was the last I'd see for a couple of weeks when the next podcast is published. Ranking them, this has to be in the top ten of those as the worst of the worst. It was unbearable at times to sit through this and no one whatsoever should see it. Ever.
At least with another road-trip movie, Thelma & Louise, they had the common courtesy to drive off the Grand Canyon when they knew they had nothing left to live for. We were NOT so lucky with the main characters here.
* * *
Final thoughts: Though I don't ride motorcycles, I can sense that keeping your mouth open for a cross-country trek isn't the smartest thing one can do on a bike. Enter Phil Pitzer, co-writer and star of this turkey and watch this man with his mouth agape the entire movie. Considering 60% of it is shot like an ad for Harleys on long, desert highways, it's entirely distracting and thoroughly disgusting watching his mouth open on the open road. Bad, bad choice for anyone who didn't stop him from doing that.
That said, one nice thing about his poor decision was that it did give me some hearty laughs and at least I got an ounce of entertainment, albeit unintentional, out of the film.